Judge Dow was appointed a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Missouri by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on November 10, 2003. He retired from the Bench on January 4, 2024.
Prior to joining the bench, Judge Dow was a partner with the firm of Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. Judge Dow was listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of bankruptcy law continuously from 1995.
Judge Dow is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, inducted in March 2013 and was selected in November 2014 to become a conferee of the National Bankruptcy Conference. Judge Dow is a member of the Missouri Bar, the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the American Bankruptcy Institute.
He is the chair of the Bankruptcy Judge Education Advisory Committee of the Federal Judicial Center and a member of the faculty of the Advanced Consumer Bankruptcy Practice Institute.
He is a pro tem member of the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. He also serves on the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules and chairs its subcommittee on forms.
Judge Dow has authored and co-authored several articles, including AERISA-Related Claims in Bankruptcy@ Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice,/i> Vol. 3, No. 1 (Nov/Dec 1993), A>Rent to Own= Agreements in Bankruptcy: Sales or Leases?@ American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 1994) and AGramm-Leach-Bliley and the Bankruptcy/Collection Attorney@ Norton Bankruptcy Law Advisor (Feb 2002).
Judge Dow received his B.A., with honors, from the University of Wyoming in 1975 and his J.D. in 1978 from Washburn University School of Law, where he was Notes Editor of the Washburn Law Journal.